To wish there were more and better childrens playgrounds

[amberlene]

I've just come back from a holiday in France. One of the really nice things is that there are more childrens playgrounds, they are also bigger and more imaginative. I wish there were more here. It makes things a lot easier, children love them and they are more sociable.

I live within a stones throw of at least seven, two of which have splash parks and one with a boating lake. I really am spoilt with our local playgrounds.

Living in France, as euro chic says the majority of families in cities live in apartments so don't have gardens. So small parks are provided pretty much every couple of blocks to give the local families somewhere to go. And to be fair they are really heavily used as the weather is good for so much of the year!

But I think the UK is miles better for the other types of parks that people are talking about - the NT / Forestry Commission / adventure playground type of thing. It's hard to find many of these here (lots of posh chateaux and theme parks though) and when the weather is good, the good big parks are so busy that it's virtually impossible to get parked, and there is barely room to spread a picnic blanket.

I live in croydon and the parks nearby are crap, although we there may be good ones we don't know about.

There are some really good parks in neighbouring boroughs that we often visit, which are much better.

Pay higher taxes, get more playgrounds.

A decent sized playground costs around £90k to install and £4k a year to run

If you live in a parished area, push the parish to install another one - but your council tax will go up to pay for it

If you live in a non parished area you are stuffed because the big councils are all capped

I agree with Talkin's numbers. The 90 grand is findable from grant making charities; ironically it's the 4 grand a year maintenance that would be more difficult if you wanted to build a new playground from scratch. However if what you want to do is replace an existing shit playground with a more fun one then the maintenance budget will already be there so that's much more achievable.

I,m in greater manchester my estate backs onto an adventure playground we have some really good ones nearby too

My town is quite well-provisioned for parks, though something like a fort would make a welcome addition.

One area has had a ton of great new equipment in. It was part of the agreement of allowing a supermarket to be built nearby that the chain funded the redevelopment of the park. They even sent market researchers to the existing one to canvas opinions on types of equipment wanted.

I agree that parks on the continent are great. There was one park in Barcelona last year that was fab as it was promoting fitness and team-work:
Two children (or parents) had one minute to run / jump as quickly as possible at one point. This activated lights on a massive piece of apparatus: the faster they went, the greater amount of time they'd be on for.

The rest of the children - of all ages - had to swing and climb around the frame to touch every light before the time ran out.

It was wonderful: children of all ages and nationalities working together. The older children even sat my toddler down by the lowest light button so that he could join in too.

More like that, please!

Duchess
That amazing play area is part of the reason Spain is broke.

Rita
I audit public sector accounts : my numbers are spot on

Duchess - my parents local park has one of those I'm in NI. Tbh it's not all that popular with my kids or seemingly many kids at the park.

I'm in Tamworth - we have a brilliant big park and several other nice play grounds

We've got quite a few near us, but I wish when they were revamped, or new ones planned they would:

• always put a fence around the whole thing. Needn't be above waist height, just tall enough so you don't get tinies running off into the road.

• always put a barrier around the swings, again to stop tinies running through and getting accidentally kicked in the head.

And yes, you always supervise in the playground anyway, but when you have charge of more than one and they are running in different directions, it's nice to know you have an extra minute before serious injury can happen!

I agree. I dont think they should get planning permission to build these new estates and then not build playgrounds in them!

Talkin and Wiggles - I withdraw my request for one, then. I don't wish to bring calamity to the nation (just thought that it was rather cool).

What I want to know is..why do local councils insist on taking away the big swings and replacing them with just one little ridiculous doughnut swings so that all the kids fight over them and only one can go on at a time.

I like the big ones but I like swings even better

blackheart
vandalism frankly
each of the big swings costs around £2k to replace.
Big kids do not go on little swings.

Talk to the council : get them to provide activities and youth shelters for the big kids (they can afford it out of their reduced vandalism repairs)
and then make the kiddie areas better

OP you are not wrong.

TBH s106 agreements in all their opacity are currently being replaced with CIL (Community Infrastructure Levy)

the minute you get wind of development in your area, start going to council meetings and make your voice heard about what you want.